SAFEGUARDING
What is TalkLife?
TalkLife is a global social network where people can talk openly and honestly with others about the ups and downs of life. They can give and get support from other people who are going through similar things. It’s a place where no-one need feel alone or judged for who they are. It is not a crisis support service.
TalkLife is available on iPhone, Android and Desktop. It is free to download.
We are an online peer support community and not a clinical service. We cannot diagnose or treat users and we do not provide advice or professional support. If you are worried about your own mental or physical health or someone else’s please seek professional help from a doctor or qualified health practitioner.
TalkLife is not a crisis support service and we cannot support users who are suicidal. If someone is in need of immediate support we urge them to contact the emergency services or one of the resources listed in our help centre.
We are unable to provide crisis support through TalkLife. As such we do not allow posts that actively discuss suicide attempts or methodologies. We prominently provide resources on where to seek crisis support help in our ‘I need help’ section in app. We also provide pop up signposting to users when they have drafted content that suggests they’re in crisis.
Please see our community guidelines for more information on what we allow and don’t allow.
Safeguarding Features
Protecting our users is something we take extremely seriously. With every update, we continue to release features that strengthen the security of our community and ensure that users who need help have access to the most appropriate service. Some of our major safeguarding tools and strategies are listed below.
Safety Team
TalkLife has a global safety team working around the clock to remove inappropriate content, and users within seconds. They are professional paid staff and review every flagged post in real time. Users who violate our guidelines will have their posts removed and if necessary will be suspended from use for 48 hours. Users who are repeat offenders are blocked for a further 7 days and finally a lifetime ban.
Volunteer Moderators
TalkLife invites it’s highly engage users to become volunteer moderators; a group of TalkLife users who have permission to remove unhelpful posts from the feed and keep an eye out for explicit content. Our volunteer moderators have gone through security checking, training and are monitored on an ongoing basis.
Community Moderation
Every member of the TalkLife community has the ability to flag content and users. These flags are instantly reviewed and acted upon by our safety team. We also employ automated machine learning systems which prevent users from posting explicit language and graphic terms. These systems also signpost to crisis support services when a user begins writing content that suggests they are at risk.
In addition we provide users with a number of features to enable them to customise their experience of TalkLife and to protect themselves.
Blocking/Hiding Users
TalkLife’s blocking feature means you can block a user so that person is unable to contact you and will not appear on any of your TalkLife features. There is also the option to hide users if you would prefer not to see any content from them on your feed.
Flagging and Reporting
Users can flag any inappropriate or abusive content. This will bring it to the attention the TalkLife safety team who are able to suspend or ban users where necessary. You can flag in the following categories: abusive, unsafe, overly promotional, unrelated, nudity or upsetting. You can flag content on the TalkLife feed, private messaging or an individual users profile.
Trigger Warnings
These exist to protect our users from potentially triggering content. You can set your own trigger warnings and we will put a filter over posts that contain content that you don’t want to see. We also encourage users to add a trigger warning to their own posts if they think they could be triggering to another user. We do not allow posts that talk graphically or with detail about suicide and self-harm. Please see our community guidelines for more information.
Age
TalkLife is rated 17+ in the Apple App Store & has a IRAC certificate in Google Play. We are committed to complying with the United States’ Children Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The site and services are not targeted at children under the age of 17. We do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 17 and if you are under this age you must not use our app or our site. If we become aware that you are under 17 and using our app or our site, we may terminate your user account.
As a parent you can set restrictions on your teenagers device to prevent them from downloading apps without your permission or that are not suitable for their age range, you can read more information here
Once a user has downloaded TalkLife they are able to open TalkLife and view the TalkLife feed, in order to actively use the app they will need to create an account.
Information You Share Socially
Our sites and our app allow you to connect and share your actions, comments, content, and information publicly or with friends. Please be mindful of your own privacy needs and the privacy needs of others as you choose whom to connect with and what to share and make public. We cannot control the privacy or security of information you choose to make public or share with others.
User Data
We may use third-party vendors, such as Amazon, to store your data. Your data may be transferred to and stored in locations outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”), including but not limited to the United States. It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for a third-party vendor. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing to jurisdictions outside the EEA. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.
All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL or other appropriate technology. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
Removal of Accounts
We reserve the right to remove content and/or delete your account at our discretion, including if a user violates any of the agreed terms of service or breaches our community guidelines.
If you notice any user acting in violation of these rules please report this immediately to our system administrators at support@talklife.co.
Important Helpful Links
Further information can be found below or by emailing support@talklife.co
TalkLife Privacy Policy: Read here
TalkLife Terms of Use: Read here
Places to go if you’re in a crisis: See more here
Community Guidelines: Read here